Luca was loving it all. Accustomed as he was to a life of staggering control and predictability, he was thoroughly enjoying the sensation of letting himself go.
Which didn’t mean that he’d turned into the village idiot! He always used protection but right now, right here...
For the first time in his life, the thrill of the gamble was greater than the pull of common sense. He knew what he should do and what he shouldn’t but there was a weakness inside him, driving him on to take a chance, just this once.
She was still naked and so, so beautiful and he still had an erection as hard as a rod of steel.
He felt the slickness between her legs because he just couldn’t not go there.
‘Okay.’
‘You’re a siren.’ His groan was unsteady. ‘I can picture you sitting on a rock out there, calling to sailors. They wouldn’t stand a chance.’
He levered himself down, trailing his tongue along her body and tasting the salt from the sea. Her breasts and stomach were paler, emphasising the rich pink of her nipples, each tipped with stiffened buds the colour of claret. He played briefly with one nipple, teasing it between two fingers, but then he moved to circle her slender waist with his hands. He stroked her hips with the pads of his thumbs, then he moved even lower to gently peel apart the groove between her thighs that sheathed the pulsing of her clitoris.
He licked it, tasted her honeyed sweetness and felt himself swell even more at her little whimpers and soft, startled moans and the way she moved against his mouth, bumping up and down and wriggling, keeping his head in place because her fingers were curled into his over-long hair, and panting.
‘Please...’ she breathed and that simple plea scattered that well-intentioned voice of reason to the four winds.
He couldn’t resist.
Not when she was like this, her slender legs spread apart, open to him like a flower, inviting him to come inside. Reason, logic, forward-thinking... His brain shut down, leaving him at the mercy of sensation.
Shaking with desire, Luca stood up to rid himself of his swimming trunks, pausing only to smile at the rapt attention on her face.
Cordelia smiled back. Was it an alluring, siren-like smile, or a nervous I’ve-never-done-this-before smile?
She desperately hoped that he would think the former. She wanted him so badly.
‘You’re right,’ she whispered with gut-wrenching disappointment because this felt like a do-or-die situation. They would not relive this opportunity, not when they were back in the house and she was busy once again with the accounts and phone calls and making sure everything was okay with the house and the various things that needed to be done in it.
‘This is crazy.’ She blushed and looked away and felt the gentle touch of his finger under her chin.
‘Everyone needs a little crazy now and again. Don’t talk. I can’t talk. I just...want you...’
Her whole body was trembling. So was his. He’d never felt anything like it before. He’d never felt this need before. It was like being in the grip of a tornado.
He came inside her in one deep, satisfying thrust. Her tightness encased him perfectly and he groaned and moved, deeper, feeling his shaft sinking into her wetness.
The sensation was so intense he wanted to pass out. There was no artistry in this lovemaking. It was frantic, driving and mind-blowing. She bucked underneath him, arching and stiffening and her short nails dug into his back. He came fast and hard. He could feel the swell and release as he pumped into her, sucking the wild energy out of him and leaving him breathing hard and deeply, shockingly sated.
‘Oh, God,’ he groaned. He lay flat on his back and shielded his eyes for a few seconds from the glare of the sun. Breathing normally was still a problem as his body came down from its high. ‘I’ve never been like that before.’ It was a struggle to think. ‘Was it...okay for you?’
‘More than okay,’ Cordelia whispered under her breath and he turned onto his side to look at her. She angled her body so that they were facing one another.
It was so beautifully warm and the sound of the water lapping against the sand was hypnotic.
‘If I could bottle this,’ she confessed with honesty, ‘then I would.’ She stroked his cheek and edged closer to kiss his chin. Her whole body was still thrumming from where he had entered her. She’d felt a twinge of discomfort but her body had been ripe and ready for his entry and the bigness of him inside her, the way he’d moved, had taken her to places she’d never dreamed existed. She’d felt the surge of his orgasm meshing with her own. Their bodies had been as one, united. She couldn’t wait to touch him again, to make love again.
How could they not when it had felt so good?
There were no alarm bells ringing in her head. She was on cloud nine and it was only when their eyes met that she wondered whether too much honesty about how much she’d enjoyed what had just happened between them might not be such a great idea.
‘Cordelia,’ Luca murmured, clasping her hand between his and pensively stroking her chin with his thumb. He sighed. ‘That was better than great.’
She beamed.
‘You have a smile that could light up a room,’ he said, distractedly.
‘Thank you. I don’t think anyone’s ever said that to me before.’
‘Maybe because there aren’t sufficient eligible men around here to notice it. But trust me, you have.’ He looked at her in silence for a few seconds. ‘What we did...we shouldn’t have done,’ he said bluntly, because beating round the bush had never been his thing. ‘I don’t know what happened. Things got out of hand. I...wanted you, wanted to feel myself in you. I was in
